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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 8769
Released: November 17, 2009 |
| Our Price: $16.69 |
| Used Price: $12.70 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Acclaimed filmmaker Jim Jarmusch delivers a stylish and sexy new thriller about a mysterious loner (De Bankolé) who arrives in Spain with instructions to meet various strangers, each one a part of his dangerous mission. Featuring an all-star international cast that includes Isaach De Bankolé, Gael García Bernal, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton and Bill Murray, it’s a stunning journey in an exotic Spanish landscape that simmers with heat and suspense.
Description of The Limits of Control:
Jim Jarmusch has been the cinema's deadpan poet of lives in transit, from his breakthrough feature Stranger Than Paradise (1984) to Broken Flowers (2005). Limits of Control pretty much consists of deadpan and transit as it follows--make that contemplates--the mission of an enigmatic hitman through some picturesque but sparsely populated corners of Spain. Whom this "Lone Man" (Isaach De Bankolé) is supposed to kill and why are matters not shared with the viewer. Neither is the content of the various minuscule messages Lone Man periodically receives, reads, then swallows. Presumably they cue the next stage of his itinerary, which includes encounters with John Hurt as a guitar-toting philosophe who disdains the word "bohemian," Tilda Swinton as a platinum-blonde-wigged femme fatale emulating Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (and reminding us that that glorious movie made no sense either), and Pas de la Huerta as a young woman called, with incontrovertible aptness, "Nude." Throughout, De Bankolé's magnificent carven-ebony features register little, not even exasperation that every conversation begins with someone saying to Lone Man, "You don't speak Spanish, do you?"--in Spanish.
Most of the little that's said in Limits of Control is stuff like "Everything is subjective ... Reality is arbitrary ... Life is a handful of dust" (though that gets translated as "Life is a handful of dirt"). You've gathered by now that no way is this a thriller, although it teases against the outline of one. Its hipster self-consciousness includes name-dropping (Eliot, Rimbaud, Hitchcock; the title is from William Burroughs), homage (Citizen Kane, Contempt, De Chirico), and quite a bit of cutting from paintings to actual scenes that resemble them, and vice versa. It's all impeccably shot by Christopher Doyle, who knows just how to light De Bankolé and his dark monochrome outfits against dark monochrome backgrounds, and make us glad he does. Otherwise, Limits of Control pales in comparison to Jarmusch's other film centered on a taciturn black assassin, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), with Forest Whitaker. There the minimalist narrative took on an aura of ritual, devotion, and genuine mystery. The rituals being observed in Limits of Control feel empty and played out. --Richard T. Jameson
The Limits of Control Reviews:
Basic Jarmusch 
2009-12-15 - Visually beautiful, but otherwise a little hollow movie. Maybe Jarmusch did a film too Jarmusch-like, allthough I still like the way Jarmusch paints a picture about post-modern alienation. And when it comes to the casting of this film, Bankolé is just made for the role of a mysterious loner (and most of the side characters do a brilliant job too). Anyway, this film is definitely worth seeing.
The intervals between events, the thriller minus the thrills - visually stunning, minimalist take on the existential hit man 
2009-12-10 - Limits of control is fascinating to watch. A delightful merging of the elliptical minimalism of Jim Jarmusch and the dreamlike fascination of Chris Doyle's camera. Both mundane and surreal. Restrained and frenetic.
The lone man gets a message. He follows up and waits. He gets another message. Same thing twice, and then again; repetition with variation.
Some messengers ruminate on art and life and meaning. Another strips bare. The lone man says nothing, or not much, and does everything always the same way. He wears monochrome suits. Tai chi, every morning. Sits in an outdoor cafe. Two espressos, separate cups. He visits a museum, and contemplates a single painting. The art of waiting.
We know nothing. There may be nothing to know.
Not for everyone. Elliptical and elusive. Still, beautiful strange. I liked, a lot.
Note: there are a few intriguing extras on the dvd, but the little documentary following Jim Jarmusch around as he makes the film was a bit of a disappointment. He's a brilliant filmmaker, who says a lot be saying very little. When he is pressed to speak, however, for the purposes of the short documentary, he ends up saying nothing very interesting. If he could say it, I guess, he wouldn't need to make a film of it - but, more likely, you can't expect much of anyone on the spot when you shove a camera in their face, and he doesn't seem the type to like sounding profound. The documentary is more interesting when instead of asking Jarmusch or Chris Doyle to speak, it shows them in action, doing their thing. It did, also, convey the satisfying impression that the "waiting around, not doing much, only occasionally acting, or being struck by an idea" that characterizes most of what Jarmusch tries to depict in his films is in fact what mostly happen on his sets.
Terrible 
2009-12-02 - This film was like watching a really really bad French new wave film. So basically boring, meandering, pretentious, and utterly hollow. And about 50 years too late. Its just for those fans of Jarmusch who still dote on Coffee and Cigarettes.
It's an art film: YOU engage it, it doesn't engage you... 
2009-12-01 - My brother and I love African accents that are used in over the top rage, one of the quotes we two just love to repeat was the line said by the actor who plays this film's main character, the lone man, Isaach De Bankolé, in Casino Royale: "YEW THOTT YEW COOD LOOZ OLL THOTT MUNNY AND NO-WON WOOD NOE-TISS?!", I'm laughing now and just shouted it in full vigor at my brother and now he's laughing, but we're just weird like that, anyway I saw the trailer for this movie and thought 'No way! he has a lead role?!' now bear in mind, though I've seen and enjoyed Broken Flowers, also directed by this film's Jim Jarmusch (forgive me if I've misspelled it), I didn't know what I was in for. I was led by the film trailer to think that this film was about a stoic badass kicking ass and the stoic badass happens to be the "YEW THOTT YEW COOD LOOZ OLL THOTT MUNNY AND NO-WON WOOD NOE-TISS?!" guy, who offered yet more of his deep syrupy accent! So I waited...
I finally got my hands on it! Cheated on my little brother by watching it first to see if he would enjoy it because he's more of a mindless action fan, who's only just hit the surface of wanting more substance from his cinema as he matures. It has been three weeks and I still haven't shown it to him for two reasons: One is because our man doesn't say much, in fact, the trailer didn't mislead me at all: Isaac is stoic as a bronze bust of Nixon...stoic as hell! And two is because my brother is simply not ready for a film like this unless he's ready to go to sleep for the night.
This film is like the many images of the country side as the lone man rides the train, it moves at a smooth, steady, and unyeilding pace to a destination and once you get lost, you're flippin' lost. The film's reality is dreamlike: their are no named characters, themes are repeated through poetic coincidences, there are some small hints of the supernatural, the actions, tensions, and conflicts are subtle and choose not to stick out from whatever message you can derive from the film...REMEMBER! "from whatever message YOU can derive from the film"
As Jarmusch himself said in the equally calm behind-the-scenes special features of this DVD (which I have to paraphrase because I don't exactly know how he said it verbatum) 'I think that what you don't know is more fascinating than what you do know' and he has executed just that and has hooked me successfully! As quiet and unassuming and poetic and beautiful as this movie is, I enjoy it by ripping it apart with my mind to find the truths the philosophies the real meat that's buried deep within its surreal exterior...this is art ladies and gentlemen, as the pope said "It is what it is..."
Will you enjoy this? I don't know, it depends on how introspective you can get...to me, the film is beautiful, shot mainly in Spain, the sounds are hypnotic especially the scene where the performers rehearse their show in a dark club, the sound is just riveting! I watch it again and again, there is so much to speculate but I fear the day that I can figure everything out!
A Subjective Review.
2009-11-29 - I see this film as being an almost pure form of the art-film genre. To me, that means that instead of a conventional plot with dramatic tension and some sort of cathartic denouement, a more impressionistic message is being conveyed; one that may require a good deal of interpretation by the viewer, or one that may offer it's rewards in an unconventional manner. In other words, I think whether you enjoy this film or not depends a good deal on what you, as a viewer, bring to the table. If you don't have at least a casual interest in art, music, or metaphysical speculation, it seems to me the chances of getting anything out of the movie is greatly diminished.
I don't mean that disparagingly at all. I suspect that the majority of movie-watchers will not be overjoyed with 'The Limits of Control', and whatever their reasons, those reasons are valid for those viewers. In fact, I think this idea is at the heart of the film, in that it seems to take a stance against having our preferences dictated to us by pressure from either peers or authorities. So I can only give my subjective reasons for thinking this an excellent film, reasons which may or may not tally with others'.
Perhaps the thing I admired most was the persona of the protagonist. His personality is an enigma, his face an impassive, imperturbable mask, as he observes a wide variety of characters, listens to music, and views scenery and artwork. He seems to possess an internal BS detector which is always on, making no commitment to any of these influences. That is,... until he hears or sees something which appears to be worth noticing. Then an amazing momentary transformation takes place in his countenance. By very subtle and minute alterations, his face is suddenly intensely aware and interested, vitally alive.
He is an aesthetic purist who listens to what various characters who approach him have to say about music, painting, movies, even speculative science, but will not be suckered into giving his attention to anything which doesn't pass his BS detector. My interpretation is that when he feels a subjective experience of truth or beauty, we then see that transformation from aloofness to keen focus. He is a rugged individualist whose physical appearance and manner suggest self-knowledge, self-assurance, and self-discipline. He is not a person who is going to be controlled on the intellectual level, on the physical level, or in his artistic appreciation.
I see the set-up of this character as a hit-man on some mysterious mission as being a metaphor for the thinking person who has the toughness of mind to go it alone, to form his own opinions, to not be controlled in what he perceives as valuable in the arts or entertainment. His ultimate goal is to take out an anonymous big-shot who is working to limit and control the free-spirited pursuits of "bohemians". What this big-shot represents could be government, big-business, or even the artistic and entertainment establishments; but it is certain that this Mr. Big is crass and materialistic as well as devoted to suppressing the rights of the individual to pursue his own path.
As I said, this is a subjective interpretation. Nothing in the film is so cut and dried. Each viewer will have to discover what it means to him/her personally.
There are other elements to the film which I enjoyed, that may be less subjective than the meaning of the main character's mission. Most important of these was the music, which seemed very cutting-edge and original to me. One of the sayings from the film's dialogue was that "The universe has no center and no edges". That statement also seems to me to describe the quality of this unconventional music, although it is not atonal. It is in fact very rousing and complements the visual aspect of the movie beautifully. Which leads me to the other feature I admired - the visual aspect of the film. The scenery, whether in city or country is colorful and interesting. The camera work was indeed beautiful and artistic, and could probably be appreciated even by those who were not enthralled by the action.
Personally I feel this is a film which I could watch again, at intervals, with pleasure.
